It's over thirty years since I was last down this way. All I can remember is parking at Lanyon Quoit, and going for a long, hot walk taking in the mine and the other antiquities.
Then getting back to the car; discovering the back window had been smashed, and that some toerag had nicked some stuff out of the back.
Don't let that put you off though. It makes a change from the coast.
Ding Dong Mine is reputed to be one of the oldest mines in Cornwall; there are even tales that it was visited by Jesus Christ and Joseph of Arimathea.
All we can say for certain is that it was worked from, at least, the early part of the 17th century.
By the end of the 1850s the mine employed 206 men and boys, but was by then barely covering its operating costs.
It eventually ceased working on 11 July 1877 following an unsuccessful attempt to sell it as a going concern. Now only one of the two Pumping Houses remains from this once important industrial site.
External Links and References
External Links
Ding Dong mines
Wikipedia Article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_Dong_mines
Comments
Pete Joseph
This is just the western end of the mine, originally called Wheal Malkin. There are two more engine houses to the east, Ishmael's and Tredinnick, which are part of the mine. There have been at least two other pumping engines on the mine at different times, one stamping engine and one more whim. In the 1770s a windmill was used for pumping. Richard Trevithick was the engineer here from about 1796, for a few years.
Lanyon Quoit has had a somewhat checkered history. The enormous capstone measuring some 5 metres by 2½ metres and weighing an estimated 13½ tonnes was originally supported by four uprights but one of them collapsed, either during a storm in 1815 or when a certain Captain Giddy re-erected the structure in 1824 after a campaign to raise public money.
He made a thoroughly botched job of it. Not only did he shorten and square off, the three remaining uprights, significantly reducing the height of the dolmen (it was possible for a horse and rider to pass under the capstone in 1769), he reconstructed it at right angles to its original position.
It consists of a shallow 1m tall standing stone, which has been hewn into a roughly circular shape and punctured by a hole roughly 45cm in diameter.
This is flanked by two further standing stone, about 1.2m tall.
There are other holed stones (such as The Long Stone, Gloucestershire and Davidstow Well, Cornwall) and plenty of stone alignments, but this arrangement is atypical to say the least. There has been much speculation on the significance of the stones, but in truth, we will never know.
Men Scryfa is a curious antiquity whose exact age is a matter of considerable debate. It is inscribed with the words RIALOBRANI CUNOVALI FILI roughly speaking "the Royal Raven, son of the Glorious Prince" and it supposedly marks the burial place of the Celtic prince Ryalvran, who died here fighting for the recovery of his father's land.
English Heritage list it as a scheduled monument because it is considered to be a good example of an early medieval memorial stone.
However the Record does add "It has been suggested that this memorial stone may be a reused standing stone as the early Christians often took over previously venerated stones and marked them with crosses."
It certainly looks no different than a lot of other standing stones, but then I often suspect that many of them are a lot more modern that some people would like them to be.
There are at two megalithic structure called the Nine Maidens in Cornwall, the more famous one being the alignment of stones up by St Columb Major. This one, also known as the Nine Stones of Boskednan, has been restored since my visit.
Quite how it got its name is a mystery in itself, as, of an original ring of twenty-two or twenty-three, eleven stones still survive.
External Links and References
External Links
Boskednan Stone Circle
Wikipedia Article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boskednan_stone_circle
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Comments
Pete Joseph
This is just the western end of the mine, originally called Wheal Malkin. There are two more engine houses to the east, Ishmael's and Tredinnick, which are part of the mine. There have been at least two other pumping engines on the mine at different times, one stamping engine and one more whim. In the 1770s a windmill was used for pumping. Richard Trevithick was the engineer here from about 1796, for a few years.
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